When I first came to real estate I realized very quickly that people have all different ways of pricing a home and I am not even talking about the differences between agents, brokers and appraisers. There are multiple ways to price a home.

Let me share a story about how I flew one Monday to a town in Germany.

Why was I flying to Germany? I had seen a small advert for an antiques auction and one of the photos showed a large Chinese Export Porcelain Service with a coat of arms on it. I realized there was a chance, if no one else had seen this small advert that I might buy it cheap. Well I saw no one on the plane so my hope rose. But when I walked into the auction room for the public viewing of the items for sale it was crowded with several dealers I knew.

It is illegal to buy something in a group without telling the auctioneer if you plan on reselling it among yourselves later. We all looked at each other and knew this could become expensive. We decided to let the auctioneer know we were going to purchase the service together. But one of the older more experienced dealers said, only on condition we are all in the same ballpark on price. He did not want to give us youngsters a chance to purchase something we usually would not because we valued it less.

So we each went through the service and worked out what we thought it was worth. Then over lunch we all put down what we thought on a piece of paper. Amazingly, all four of us were within a very, very close range. But, it was when we discussed how each of us got there that it became interesting. We all valued the parts of the service differently, some of us did not attribute any value to damaged pieces at all, and there were a lot, but one of the younger dealers knew he could sell those and had reckoned a value to them when the older dealers had not. The more experienced dealer valued the larger pieces like soup tureens and serving pieces more.

The point of the story is that there are lots of ways to find a value for your home. We can analyze data, like Zillow and other automatic valuation services do. We can look at prices per square foot, or price in relation to the appraised value for taxes, we can consider what you paid and study how prices have changed since then. We can look at comparable homes at different distances both for sale and past sales. We can take all these data points and combine them and maybe they will give us an accurate picture of the selling price.

But ultimately our job is to get people to look at your home who can afford it, to consider it as great value over and above any other home they have seen for sale. Some of these buyers may have seen other homes which have sold, but in reality they will be looking at homes which are for sale at the same time as yours.

Pricing a home is one part science, data analysis and one part creativity. We need to see if we can find a spot where there is less competition or where your home will get more views and create more interest.

Consider that story above, at auction people often spend more than they intended because of the competition, they get excited and encouraged to pay more because others also value the item they want. We want to create that competition for your home by pricing it where buyers see the value and will decide this is the home they want and they are willing to pay more than the asking price and offer better terms to get it.

It is not a good idea to base the selling price on what you paid, what you need to get, or what you think the house is worth. You always need to remember, this is not about you, but what the buyers think your home is worth.

So let’s get to know what you want and discuss how we can help you achieve your goals in selling your Tredyffrin Easttown and Main Line area home. Contact Nick Vandekar, with Long & Foster Real Estate, Nick@VandekarTeam.com, office 610-225-7400, cell or text 610-203-4543 website is www.SellingTheMainLine.com. We look forward to working with you and making your dance a happy one.

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Comments

Nick what a great analogy for pricing homes vs pricing antiques. So many ways to come at a price and reasons for that price. Your statement rings loud and clear....

It is not a good idea to base the selling price on what you paid, what you need to get, or what you think the house is worth. You always need to remember, this is not about you, but what the buyers think your home is worth.

Anna Banana Kruchten,CRS,CRB,GRI the two businesses are very similar, Trudy went into real estate first and while she did not really want me to join her she always said there was a great similarity. Both of them you hold infomration in your head, wants of clients for example when you see a certain home you think of John and what he wanted etc. Likewise in antiques, you see a piece and think of different clients who might want it.

WOW, absolutely fantastic analogy, Nick! I love that story too and learned yet another thing about you!

And, you're so right - creativity does come into play as well and explaining that is next to impossible as it is SO highly specific, based on the house, the neighborhood, the season, the market...you know what I mean!

Kathy Streib exactly, till someone puts their money down the market has not spoken except to say no thank you.

Beth Atalay exactly, we have had so many homes sell over asking this year with multiple offers, interestingly one we just reduced the price on this week then sold over our original asking price.

Debe Maxwell, CRS we look at so many homes every week, you know when you walk in and se a home what it is going to sell for roughly.

Hannah Williams most cash buyers use an appraisal contingency or should to protect themselves if they are smart, of course the argument becomes who is paying the appraiser and what was he asked to price....

Nick & Trudy Vandekar, 610-203-4543 In this area cash buyers are paying CASH they know value and want the property . Putting in an appraisal clause when they are up against 2-4 other cash offers are not in their best interests . It is simply not done

Nick & Trudy Vandekar, 610-203-4543 "But ultimately our job is to get people to look at your home who can afford it, to consider it as great value over and above any other home they have seen for sale."